Posts Tagged ‘Mars’

I got to read TWO Kage Baker collections, at the same time! In the Company of Thieves, is all (you guessed it) Company stories, and The Best of Kage Baker is a mish mash of all sorts of wonderfulness. In fact, I am still working my way through The Best of Kage Baker, savoring it bit by bit. The Best of, so far seems to be about half Company stories, and half other stuff.

And eeeee!!! The Best of Kage Baker has illustrations!!!

Here’s some thoughts on what I’ve read so far:

The Carpet Beds of Sutro Park – I have such a soft spot for this story. It’s a very quiet story, it’s a slow burn. Ezra doesn’t have lofty goals, and neither do it. His reason, tho, is pretty tragic. He does right by Kristy Ann, and it’s probably a good thing that he never tells anyone, as I don’t think they’d understand his loving intentions.

Hollywood Ikons – Religious paintings that can fry your brain because they were painted using secret mathematical formulas possessed by Imhotep? And Joseph was Imhotep? If Tim Powers wrote Raiders of the Lost Ark and made it a buddy comedy involving manuscript preservation, cro-magnons, and Hollywood landmarks, you might get something close to Hollywood Ikons. This story pushed all my buttons in the best possible way! Also, note to self: if doing a google search on what the heck Joseph is talking about, search “Byzantine ikonography”, instead of “ikon”. “Ikon” brings up pages upon pages of a K-pop boy band.

The Women of Nell Gwynne’s – I know I’m supposed to like stories like this. Steampunk! Gadgets! Women who have fallen on hard times and now make the best of things by becoming paramours who are also spies and potential blackmailers! Flouncy dresses! And I know this story won about a million awards for being steampunk! Gadgets! Company! Funny sexy stuff! But the funny sexy scenes didn’t do much for me, and tbh I have always struggled with steampunk. If it’s your thing, you will love this story. But I’m sorry, I’m meh on Nell Gwynne’s. Can’t a woman be of service to the Gentlemen’s Speculative Society without, well, servicing the gentlemen? We can provide people with miniature cameras, buttons that dissolve into sleeping pills, and internal combustion engines, but we can’t devise a way for a “fallen woman” to make a living without selling her body? I’ll shut up now.

Noble Mold – Joseph pretending he’s a priest and Mendoza doing a bad job pretending that she doesn’t want to kill him? Of course I loved this story!! Joseph has this long game point of view that I appreciate. (ugh, i guess that’s called wisdom? or something?) Mendoza is on the hunt for a particular plant, and the family who owns the property is very, very reluctant to let her dig it up. There’s a 60 year old secret here. Joseph has to protect his own secret, the family’s secret, and yet somehow still get that plant dug up! Luckily, he’s really good at creating miracles. After all, he’s the guy who played Imhotep! Noble Mold is freakin’ fantastic.

Old Flat Top – wait, is this Budu, who I love? Nope, but it is someone who worked with Budu! And his job to sit at the top of the mountain, and keep the early humans who live in the valley below from killing each other. He’ll pretent he’s a god, if that’s what it takes to make sure these idiots don’t kill each other. And every so often, a brave youth climbs the mountain, in search of the god of the mountain. Man, I could read a million stories of the Enforcers. These guys! Life is pretty simple for them, their values are very black and white, their job is to protect and make sure early humans survive. I like how the Enforcers make everyone else think more about everything. Especially since the Enforcers don’t really care about making people think, which makes watching their interactions even more fascinating for me!

Hanuman – I was laughing my head off reading this story. Why, you ask? Because this guy, Hanuman, is hitting on Mendoza, and he thinks he has a chance with her! She gives him the time of day, because she’s recovering from an injury and she doesn’t have anything else to do, and she’s polite and he’s inoffensive. Could it be? Could Mendoza be making a new friend? I was so happy that she was having a nice time, and maybe making a new friend!!! Is she going to let someone in? And then. Well, that sure made me stop laughing, and I feel a bit of an ass for laughing at the beginning and wondering if this was the start of a beautiful friendship between Hanuman and Mendoza. After all that, if I was Mendoza I’d stomp off into the forest and not talk to anyone for another 200 years. And people wonder why she has trust issues!

Maelstrom – another one where I laughed and laughed and laughed! And finally, a funny story that actually has a happy ending! On Mars, Mr. Morton has built the Edgar Allan Poe Center for the Performing Arts. What follows is a laugh out loud, raucous, joyous, Muppet Show-esque comedy of errors, complete with nervous directors, terrible actors, even worse understudies, and Martians with hearts of gold. I adore Alf so much! And I love Baker’s Mars – a family of misfits, eccentrics, dreamers, and adventurers. Maelstrom was exactly what I needed. I hope as I get further into The Best of Kage Baker, that I get to hangout some more with these characters.

If you’ve been seeing my posts and thinking to yourself “jeez, when is she gonna shut up about this Company series, I don’t even know where to freakin’ start with these damn books”, you can start with The Empress of Mars!

ok, so I KNOW all the suggested reading orders put Empress of Mars near the end of the series, but you should read it near the beginning!!!

– It functions perfectly as a stand alone. Never read a Kage Baker before? start with Empress of Mars!

– omg it is HILARIOUS, like Anvil of the World hilarious. the bad translator scene? I was laughing so hard I drooled on myself.

– If you recognize some characters from elsewhere in the series, that’s ok, and if you don’t, that’s ok too. the book isn’t about those people anyway.

Also? It’s kinda better if you read The Empress of Mars before you know about some end of series stuff that happens. I wish I’d read it before I knew all that other stuff.

The Empress of Mars is a gift that gives twice – it was originally a novella, AND then it got expanded into a novel! I’ve not read the novella, so I don’t know what parts of the book it was.

What the heck is this book about?

Mary Griffith went to Mars for adventure! She went For Science!

And when the British Arean Company decided they didn’t her discoveries anymore, they fired her. With no income, she had no way to purchase tickets home for her family. So Mary opened a bar. The very first bar on Mars, as a matter of fact. A friendly stop for ice haulers, a save haven for a Heretic, a place where everyone ends up. Mary’s bar, The Empress of Mars, is where you go for news and gossip, local brew and decent food. And when it’s literally the only bar in town . . .

(I really did want Brick and the Heretic to have a happy ever after, didn’t you?)

The Empress of Mars has electronic bees, crazy truckers, idiot bureaucrats, kind fiancees, gamblers and con-artists, two gentlemen who you just might recognize, tips for starting a business on Mars, and one very large, very perfect diamond. It’s and old fashioned western frontier town adventure story, on Mars.

It’s a fun feel good book and a fast read.

I wish I’d read it earlier in the series.

The only crime the Empress of Mars ever committed was being read immediately after I read The Sons of Heaven, and really any book would have been a let down after reading that.

Also? now I’m reading the next book (the last novel? I think?) in the series, Not Less Than Gods. It’s all about Edward, who I still think is a total asshole for all the shit he pulled in the Sons of Heaven. I am not excited about reading a book that is entirely about him.

What can I say about Not Less than Gods, since I’m about 100 pages in? The writing is glorious, the side-characters are a hoot, I love the cover art. Edward is an asshole.

Coming this summer from Apex Books is MARS GIRLS, a YA adventure set on everyone’s favorite red planet. Written by award winning author Mary Turzillo, Mars Girls follows the frantic and frenetic adventures of Nanoannie and Kapera. Both girls understand the dangers of living on Mars, but still, life isn’t easy when you’re just a couple of Mars Girls! Click here to preview the first chapter of the book.

What others are saying about Mars Girls:

“Mary Turzillo has crafted an extraordinary tale of teenaged adventure on a harsh planet. Heroines Nanoannie and Kapera use bravery and ingenuity to survive on a vividly imagined future Mars.”
—Brenda Cooper, author of Edge of Dark

And what would a blog tour be without a giveaway? Make sure you scroll all the way to the bottom of this post to get entered in the give away for a free e-book of Mars Girls. Mary Turzillo and Nanoannie and Kapera have been blog touring all over the blogosphere, head on over to these other posts to read reviews, interviews, and more!

The tour ends here, at Little Red Reviewer, with an interview with Mary Turzillo. This may be the end of the blog tour, but it’s just the beginning of Nanoannie and Kapera’s adventures out in the wild. If this book looks like something you or someone you know would enjoy, head over to Apex Books or Amazon to order yourself a copy.

About Mary Turzillo:

Mary Turzillo’s 1999 Nebula-winner,”Mars Is no Place for Children” and her Analog novel, AN OLD-FASHIONED MARTIAN GIRL, are read on the International Space Station. Her poetry collection, LOVERS & KILLERS, won the 2013 Elgin Award. She has been a finalist on the British Science Fiction Association, Pushcart, Stoker, Dwarf Stars and Rhysling ballots. SWEET POISON, her Dark Renaissance collaboration with Marge Simon, was a Stoker finalist and won the 2015 Elgin Award. She’s working on a novel, A MARS CAT & HIS BOY, and another collaboration with Marge Simon, SATAN’S SWEETHEARTS. Her novel MARS GIRLS is forthcoming from Apex. She lives in Ohio, with her scientist-writer husband, Geoffrey Landis, both of whom fence internationally.

Let’s get to the interview!

Andrea Johnson: Who was your favorite character to develop and write in Mars Girls?

Mary Turzillo: It’s hard to choose. Nanoannie is a more complicated character than she at first seems, since her desires and enthusiasms are so conflicted. She wants adventure, but now that it’s happening, she’s rather it had more designer suit-liners and fantasy boyfriends, and fewer slightly burned hands, slimy kidnappers, and unwanted real-life lovers. She seems all surface, but despite her silliness, she has backbone.

But I’m also rather fond of Cayce. He’s such a player. In fact, I like him so much that I gave him a cousin by the same name in an upcoming novel, except the cousin is younger and a rather nice guy.

AJ: Without giving any spoilers, can you tell us which scene was the most fun to write? Which scene was the most difficult to write?

MT: It’s hard to talk about scenes very farther into the novel with out giving out spoilers, but here goes. Out of context I’m not giving too much away.

I enjoyed writing everything in the novel. If I didn’t enjoy a particular scene, it meant I’d just have to ditch it, because if I didn’t like it, how could I expect the reader to enjoy it? But my favorite was, curiously, Kapera doing her EVA. I researched space-walks thoroughly, and I even have a mug from Kennedy Space Center of the cooling radiators on the International Space Station. I wanted to show her courage and ingenuity and the fact that she persisted.

The hardest passage to write was Marcus’s account of what really happened at Smythe Pharm, because the plot had gotten pretty complicated by that time. I also had to get inside Marcus’s mind. I’m writing about him in another novel, a prequel to this one, and he’s an interesting, tortured soul with a strange background. He’s been a criminal and also a devoted family man. This is all background, but it had to be subtext.

I read Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles at the end of January as part of Vintage Month, but as you can see, I’m not getting the review up until now. As these are short stories, this counts towards Tip the Wink’s Short Story February. Win!

This collection of short stories and episodic microfiction that chronicle humanity’s conquest of Mars is a fun read for a lot of reasons, foremost that early stories take place in 1999. I always get a chuckle out of reading something that was written in the 50s and the author places it at the turn of the next century thinking “that’s so far in the future!!”. Well, the future is now, or it was 18 years ago. Fun little time slip there!

As the story goes, in the late 1990s, we sent expeditions to Mars, and the first few were complete failures. (Which makes me wonder – how much did we know about Mars in 1950? That’s the worldview that these stories were written in) Some of the short stories at the beginning of the chronicles are from the Martian’s point of view, and they basically see humans as annoying curiosities. The Martians are telepathic and can appear in any shape to us, so sometimes they appear as humans as to help us feel more comfortable. One of the expeditions comes across an entire Earth village filled with the astronauts parents and grandparents, who “welcome” everyone home. There’s a darkness here as well, as the Martian’s goal is be sure we never attempt to return. I viewed a lot of that with gallows humor, but I don’t believe it was ever meant to be funny.

I’ve never had much luck reading Philip K. Dick. I enjoyed reading The Penultimate Truth, and got through Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, but other than that, I was rarely able to get more than 20 pages into one of his books. I assumed I didn’t like his writing style, and I gave up. On a lark, I picked up a used copy of Martian Time-Slip. It looked short, and thus easily survivable even if I ended up not caring for it.

What a happy surprise, to find myself really enjoying it! The beginning of the story follows Jack Bohlen, a highly skilled mechanic at a Mars colony. He’s able to provide quite well for his family, as it’s nearly impossible to import spare parts, so anyone skilled with fixing machinery is in high demand on Mars. From Jack’s observations, we get some information on the different colonies his employer sends him to. We also learn about the indigenous Martians, who are still alive. Sometimes hired as cheap labor, the Martians, known as Bleekmen (also known as an offensive term that I can’t bring myself to use), know how to survive away from the canals their ancestors cultivated. The colonists generally treat the natives like shit, but it’s the law of the air that if you are piloting a flyer, and you see Bleekmen (or anyone) stranded in the desert, you are required the land and provide help as you are able. I’m not sure if it was Dick’s intention, but I saw the colonists treatment of the natives as a commentary on casual racism and post colonialism.

I don’t know why I skipped this book back when it came out. I remember it got a lot of hype, and that I’d recently been burning on some other titles being overhyped. Anyways, the book recently came out in paperback, and was chosen for the December book for my book club. The hype had long since died down, and I’d be discussing the book among friends, so the time was ripe for me to dive in.

Let’s get this out of way first – I absolutely, freakin’ LOVED Andy Weir’s The Martian. I’d sit down, planning to read a chapter or two, or maybe 20 pages, and before I knew it an hour had gone by and I’d devoured a chunk of the book and bitten of half my fingernails in the process. This is one helluva page turner, and Weir pulls the best kind of trick possible: You really don’t know what’s going to happen until the very last few pages.

The blurb on the back of the book sums up the basics nicely:

“Six days ago astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.

Now he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there.

After a dust storm forces his crew to evacuate the planet while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded on Mars’s surface, with no way to signal Earth that he’s alive. And even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone years before a rescue could arrive.

You can read “The Lady Astronaut of Mars” over at Tor.com, and really, you should. It’s a quick story, but that doesn’t really matter, because you’ll be hooked right away. But you might want to read it at home, with tissues handy. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Such a beautiful, but painful story to read. On a happy note, I got a kick out of the nods to a The Wizard of Oz, which gave the story an ethereal, almost nostalgic feeling. A little funny to read a scifi story about a Mars colony, and getting a feeling of nostalgia! But that’s all that is funny about it. “The Lady Astronaut of Mars” has a gravitas to it, a maturity, a wordless something I don’t often get to see in science fiction. It’s about a husband and a wife who love each other, who want to help each other, and they both understand one of them is dying.

It was nice to read a speculative fiction piece that stars an aging woman. We get male characters of all ages, teens, young men, 20s, adults, retired guys. But those female characters always seem to be in that nineteen to thirty two sweet spot – old enough to kick some ass, but not, like, old. And Elma York? She’s old. She’s retired. No one recognizes her anymore. Her body is not taught, her back is hunched, her arms and legs jiggle. But she still dreams of flying. Back in the 1950s, Elma was known as The Lady Astronaut of Mars. But that was thirty years ago. Now, living on Mars, Elma has a new life. Yes, she still keeps in shape as best she can, yes, she keeps up with the physicals and the tests, anything to keep her name on the active list of astronauts, but she knows she’s not going anywhere. She’s retired. Her dreams haven’t changed, but her priorities have.

Elma’s in good health, but her husband Nathaniel, his health is failing rapidly. Their life rotates around his medication schedule, when the nurse visits, how his tests come back, when the doctor expects the paralysis to set in. There are some undignified moments, but Kowal lays their story bare, gives us everything. Because that’s love, you know? It’s in sickness and in health, for better for worse. Signing up for love means signing up for everything. You know those stories that after you read them, you suddenly find yourself across the room, holding your partner’s hand, and they when they ask if everything is ok you tell them you love them? This is that story.

FTC Stuff

some of the books reviewed here were free ARCs supplied by publishers/authors/other groups. Some of the books here I got from the library. the rest I *gasp!* actually paid for. I'll do my best to let you know what's what.